In many telecommunication systems, communications networks are used to exchange messages among several interacting spatially-separated devices. Networks may be classified according to geographic scope, which could be, for example, a metropolitan area, a local area, or a personal area. Such networks would be designated respectively as a wide area network (WAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), local area network (LAN), wireless local area network (WLAN), or personal area network (PAN). Networks also differ according to the switching/routing technique used to interconnect the various network nodes and devices (e.g., circuit switching vs. packet switching), the type of physical media employed for transmission (e.g., wired vs. wireless), and the set of communication protocols used (e.g., Internet protocol suite, Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), Ethernet, etc.).
Wireless networks are often utilized when the network elements are mobile and thus have dynamic connectivity needs, or if the network architecture is formed in an ad hoc, rather than fixed, topology. Wireless networks employ intangible physical media in an unguided propagation mode using electromagnetic waves in the radio, microwave, infra-red, optical, etc., frequency bands. Wireless networks advantageously facilitate user mobility and rapid field deployment when compared to fixed wired networks.
In a communication system including a first communication device such as a cell phone, paired with another device such as a Bluetooth headset, when a received communication is detected on the first device, a notification corresponding to the received communication is automatically forwarded to the paired device. In many scenarios, the received communication may be sensitive, e.g., a call/message from a confidential contact and/or from a personal contact, and seamless routing of the communication and/or the notification corresponding to the communication to the paired device may be undesirable from a privacy standpoint of a user of the first device. For example, if a user's phone is paired with a car infotainment system which may include a display, notification for all incoming calls are transparently routed to the paired device. If friends/business peers are in same car, all of them may be able to see the incoming call notifications. In another example, where the user's cell phone is paired with a tablet device, all the notifications are routed to the tablet device causing privacy issues to the user when the tablet is accessed by friends, members of the household and/or others in the presence of the user.
In view of the above, there is need for methods and apparatus for selectively forwarding received communications and/or alerts corresponding to received communications from a communication device to a paired device based on a user's privacy settings.